


Scorched Earth

by Elenyafinwe



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Second Age, War of the Last Alliance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24997027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenyafinwe/pseuds/Elenyafinwe
Summary: Gil-galad and Elendil's armies are on their way south when they encounter a vast wasteland. Once the gardens of the Ent-wives stood here, now Sauron has burned it down. Gil-galad orders Elrond and Thranduil to scout the area. Perhaps not all the Ent-wives are gone after all.
Kudos: 20
Collections: Das Promptcafe





	Scorched Earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Augurey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Augurey/gifts).
  * A translation of [Verbrannte Erde](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/729756) by Elenyafinwe. 
  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Promptcafe](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Promptcafe) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Prompt: Was ist mit den Ent-Frauen geschehen? Wo sind sie hin?
> 
> Gen und Ratings sind zu beachten und die Geschichte sollte sich halbwegs ins Universum einfügen. Bitte keine Parodie/Humor. Ansonsten bin ich anspruchslos. Feel Free!

An endless wasteland stretched before the army, barrens as far as the eye could see. A foul smell wafted in thick clouds over the burnt hills of what had once been a fertile garden. Once there had been magnificent fruit trees and vast golden fields. Now it was nothing but a burnt desolation where nothing moved. Quietly the wind blew into the banners of the army and carried the sweet stench of decay beneath them. The silence of death lay over all.

"What has happened here?" Gil-galad asked himself quietly.

"The work of the enemy," Oropher said gloomily as he rode to the side of the High King. He did not look at him, but looked across the ravaged land. "Here stood the gardens of the Entwives, a thriving, fertile land they had tended and cultivated since they came from the west. They taught the peoples of the Anduin how to cultivate the land and willingly gave them the fruit of their hands to work as a gift of friendship. These lands, under their careful tending, flourished in unprecedented splendor."His gaze wandered south, toward their destination. "Sauron! This must be his work. A war of scorched earth. He knows nothing but the destruction of all that is good and beautiful."

Gil-galad had listened to him in silence, watching the land before them. Thranduil wondered once more what might be going on in the mind of the High King, while his own heart was heavy with grief. When they had lived on Amon Lanc, the Ent-wives had been good neighbours who had often visited their forests and gifted them the fruits of their fields. Also the wood elves had often come to walk in their gardens and enjoy their beauty. It had been a good neighbourhood.

"A scorched earth war indeed," Gil-galad finally said. "Sauron wants to stop us, which is good in a way, because he fears us then. Yet our road to Mordor lies through these lands."

"We must know what lies ahead," Elendil now spoke. "Sauron will surely not be content merely to burn the Gardens. Who knows what other devilry he has devised."

Gil-galad nodded and turned to his herald. "Elrond, I want you to scout the way with a party of lookouts. Oropher, your people know the land before us. Would you send Elrond some of your rangers to help him?"

Though Gil-galad and Elendil were the commanders-in-chief of their forces, the High King never addressed Oropher with orders. Always he made requests. Thranduil had already noticed this on the first day when they joined the armies of the Noldor and the Dúnedain. Apparently, Gil-galad knew very well that Oropher was no friend of the Noldor, and tried to meet him at eye level. Thranduil wondered, however, how much longer it would be before the inevitable clash between the two. The tension was almost palpable.

Oropher hesitated visibly, but then he finally nodded. "Thranduil, find a handful of your best men and go with Elrond."

Thranduil breathed a sigh of relief. He was still spared quarrels between his father and Gil-galad.

Gil-galad and Elendil ordered a rest until they had scouted out their immediate location and had a rough idea of what to expect. Only then did they plan to march on and send out more scouts. Thranduil was a little surprised that his father had dismissed him for this, his precious son and heir. It was probably simply because Gil-galad had sent Elrond and Oropher did not want the Noldor to gain the upper hand in this matter.

There were ten of them when they left on foot. Elrond brought his dog, Garahû, with him, and Thranduil knew that he was bred by the herald himself. He was also accompanied by his obligatory shadows, two Noldor, who were named Ceomon and Rethtulu. Thranduil could not help but notice that he felt uneasy in their presence. They still wore the star of Feanor openly and Thranduil had by no means forgotten Doriath. When Oropher had seen them in Elrond's company for the first time, some nasty words had been spoken. Thranduil made sure to keep them in view and keep his hand close to his sword.

The wood elves swarmed out to search a larger area, and Elrond had his dog sniffing around so he could spot suspicious tracks. For a while they stomped silently side by side, trying not to look in each other's direction.

"So you knew the Ent-wives who lived here," Elrond asked at one point. Perhaps just to fill the uncomfortable silence between them.

"Yes", was Thranduil's terse answer.

"I wonder what has become of them," Elrond pondered.

"Have you ever met an _onod_?" Thranduil asked. He knew that Elrond had lived for a time in Ossiriand, a prisoner of the Feanorians on the Amon Ereb. He remembered well the indignation it had caused among his father's people. After the fall of Doriath, they had gone to Ossiriand, and in retrospect, it was probably Oropher's best decision not to go with the Lady Elwing after all, and instead to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Silmaril. Still, they had been horrified to hear that Maedhros and Maglor had captured Elwing's sons. Thranduil still did not understand why Elrond had joined the Noldor who had done this to him.

"Yes, a very long time ago in Ossiriand," Elrond confirmed. "My fath... I mean, Maglor took my brother and me on a trip to the woods where we met Fangorn. I was just a little boy then, but I remember him talking about Fimbrethil. He seemed very sad about it, a sadness that goes far beyond what I can understand."

Had he just called the kinslayer his father? Thranduil threw a slanted glance at him, but decided to tolerate it in silence. He didn't want this discussion to get out of hand, not here and now anyway.  
"They separated from their wives a long time ago," he said instead. "Fangorn often walked in the elm woods of Ossiriand and sang about them; they missed them dearly."

"It is all the more despicable what Sauron did here," Elrond said grimly. "Maybe we can track down traces of them and find out what happened to them."

Thranduil agreed with him. He could not imagine that Sauron had destroyed this land so thoroughly that there was nothing left of the women of the _onodrim_. Perhaps he did not want to imagine it either.

They fell back into silence. Thranduil thought about what had been said and watched Elrond's servants Ceomon and Rethtulu stealthily. They were obviously declared Feanorians, and Elrond had called Maglor his father. Thranduil did not understand what could have caused Elrond to turn away from Eärendil. But one thing was clear to him: anyone who stood by Feanor's sons could not be trusted. As soon as they were back in the camp, he had to talk to his father about it and tell him what he had discovered.

All of a sudden Garahû struck and jumped away. They hurried after the dog. He led them to a burnt hill on which were scattered knotty, twisted silhouettes. Wagging his tail, Garahû jumped around them and then hurried to his master to collect praise for his find. Elrond scratched his ears and then looked at what the dog had found. Thranduil followed him.

They were the charred remains of old trees that had not yet completely decayed to ashes. Thranduil, however, was troubled by their shape: they were vaguely reminiscent of elves, stretched out and left where they had been cut down.

Elrond carefully stroked the charred bark. Suddenly there was a strange gleam in his eyes.

"No, the _onodrim_ will not see their women in this world again," he said with astonishing certainty. "They are lost to them forever, and Fangorn will have to carry the loss over Fimbrethil for a long time, long even for the oldest of the ancients of this world."

Thranduil retreated in confusion. He had heard that Elrond possessed the gift of foresight, but to witness it with his own eyes was quite another matter.

But then he suddenly noticed a movement beneath the charred remains of the tree. He knelt down, despite the ashes sticking to his clothes, and looked to see what he had found. It was a small mouse, watching him with its beady eyes. Gently he reached out a hand so the animal could sit on it and picked it up. It began to bleep softly.

Astonished, Elrond stepped to his side and looked at the animal. "So Sauron did not, after all, extinguish all life here."

"It has seen what has happened here," Thranduil reported. "Sauron had the gardens burned and the Ent-wives killed or enslaved. Only a few have escaped and are now scattered in all directions."

Elrond seemed saddened by this news. "Then they are lost to this world, and their gardens will never flourish again. Come, let us go and report to Galad what we have found here."

Thranduil looked sadly at the charred tree one last time. Then he sat the mouse on his shoulder to carry it away from this dreadful place and followed Elrond back to camp.

For a long time yet to come, the Ents' sad songs were to tell of their wives who were lost to them forever.


End file.
